


May You Stay a While

by Tabbyluna



Series: Fictober 2020 [1]
Category: Skylanders (Video Games)
Genre: Dead Lover, F/F, Female Friendship, Mentioned Disability, sad feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:35:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26746006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabbyluna/pseuds/Tabbyluna
Summary: Day 1 of Fictober 2020: Ninjini wished she could have stayed around for just a little bit. What she would give to have her back.
Relationships: Deja Vu/Torch (Skylanders), Ninjini/OC
Series: Fictober 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947136
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	May You Stay a While

**Author's Note:**

> Okay yes. So, welcome to Fictober 2020. I wrote a ton of stories out as fast as possible, I probably will edit really minimally thanks to burn-out, but I hope some of these will still be worth reading. Thanks for starting this journey.
> 
> Also, this does talk about a character with an unnamed disability due to an unnamed fantasy illness. I'm not sure if I portrayed her particularly well. If you have objections, please comment, and I will try to do better in the future.

Scarlet stood in a field of wildflowers. Either during dawn or dusk, Ninjini couldn’t remember. But she stood there, flowers in her red hair and a long silky dress adorning her shapely body. She turned around and saw her, her cherry lips curving up into the sweetest smile Ninjini had ever seen in her life.

Ninjini walked towards her. She had just gotten back from training, so her hair was a mess and she was all sticky from sweat. She was really in a terrible condition to go and see a beautiful woman. But Scarlet didn’t seem to mind. When she saw her, she immediately ran over to her. As she usually did when they met up together. Scarlet insisted that she always wanted to run to her.

“You’re a warrior, and you spend each day hard at work already. The least that I could do is run to meet you every day.” Scarlet came from a rich family. She was also frequently sickly. Her parents and siblings helped the workers harvest fruits in their great fruit farm every day, while she stayed inside the mansion reading, thinking, and growing bored. She often had difficulty walking, thanks to a childhood disease. But when she was with a lover, she always, always tried to run.

“It’s not good for you,” Ninjini tried to argue. But that never stopped her. Every time she saw her, she would always drop everything and run. Scarlet always collapsed in her arms, panting and sweating. Clutching her sides with a wide grin on her face.

“But I want to do it. What’s the point of living my sort of life if I can’t enjoy it the way I want to?” She mused. Always the stubborn one.

Ninjini smiled at her, she smiled back. Scarlet was so small and light in her arms. It was like handling a doll made of some fragile material. Porcelain, perhaps even glass? It was a moment in time which was permanently stuck in Ninjini’s memories. The silk of her dress was soft to the touch. Her hair smelled of honeysuckle and the curls were an organised mess. With the face of an angel, and the grip of a demon…

Her smiling face melted into a snarl. “Why did you leave me, Ninjini?” She growled, her voice gravelly and filled with anger. 

Scarlet mutated in her arms. Her flesh grew as hot as lava, her hair fried into crisp and her eyes bulged out like an insect’s. Ninjini tried to push her away, but it was almost as if she was stuck on her. But finally, she managed to pry her away. Only for her to fall backward, down, down, down into a hole which seemed bottomless.

She looked up again, and saw that her Scarlet had returned to normal. Same pure white dress as before, looking like an angel. With her curly red hair framing her innocent blue face, she called out to her, her voice hollow and wanting. “Why did you leave me, Ninjini?”

“No, come back!” Ninjini woke up with a jolt. She gasped, breathing heavily and looking around to see where she had ended up falling down.

It was a familiar sight. The inside of her lamp. She had spruced it up over the years, reclaiming her old prison by making it a place where she could truly call her own. She added a ton of little things to make herself comfortable while within the bottle. And those were all the things she saw around here. No longer was she falling down a deep hole, or in the middle of a field with wildflowers. She was surrounded by plush pink walls, a canopy bed, a mini-fridge in the corner, her desk, multiple posters and her wardrobe. And she herself was not dressed in armour, but wearing silk pyjamas and covered in soft blankets, surrounded by pillows and cushions.

She heaved a sigh of relief. It was just that nightmare again.

A tapping sound came from above. “Ninjini? Are you awake?” And she recalled where exactly she had parked her bottle the night before. “We wanna know when we can eat breakfast and get going again!”

“Yeah, hold on, I’ll come out soon,” she called out, “just let me get changed!”

Once Ninjini washed up, slipped herself into her armour and calmed herself down from her nightmare, she was ready to face the day. “Heads up!” She called out. A warning sign for those who might be standing too near the bottle. She gave a few seconds for all to stand clear of her path. 

“All clear!” Someone shouted from above. And Ninjini took it as her cue. She sprouted out of the bottle in an explosion of magical force. One spin, two spins, three spins, stabilise. She looked down, and saw Splat, Star Strike and Déjà Vu looking up at her with smiles on their faces.

“Good morning, girls!” Greeted Ninjini, her voice as cheery as she could make it. She tried to show no signs of her earlier moment of weakness. No point in letting these young’uns worry about her. She was an experienced ninja warrior who had lived of millenia. Nightmares weren’t really that big a deal for her. No siree. 

They each greeted her good morning in their own ways. Then they got down to business. “We’ve only got a bit of bread and cheese left in terms of food,” said Déjà Vu. “So we’ll have to stop by a town to restock our supplies. I know there’s one built by the foot of the nearby mountains.”

“Yeah, good call,” said Star Strike. She reached for her pack - where they were storing that bread and cheese - and took them out. Then she used her fans to slice both up into four pieces, The biggest of each they gave to Ninjini. “We could go for some canned goods, extra water, maybe even some supplies to repair the tent.”

They had spent the night camping out in a cave. The night before the previous one, their tent got destroyed by a rainstorm, and so they needed to find alternative means of shelter. Ninjini had her bottle, which functioned as a handy home-away-from-home. And Splat spent the night sleeping in the Splatter Splasher (parked outside on the stream). But the other two would have been exposed to the elements otherwise. A cave was far from the greatest thing to spend the night in, but it was the best alternative they had out in the wilderness.

They were on a quest, the four of them. A journey to help search for the grave of a great woman who was wronged in the past. Who deserved a burial better than what she got. At least, that was what Ninjini told them.

In actuality, she just wanted to see Scarlet’s grave.

Scarlet, her dear Scarlet. The love of her life, at least the earliest part of her life. Then she got trapped in a bottle for years and years. Joined the Giants. Got banished to Earth. And afterwards it had just been crisis after crisis. She tried her best to forget all that once was. In order to fix the problems of the present, one could not get too hung up on the past. But the past came back periodically in its own ways. She’d been having that exact nightmare for so long, she could not even remember when it began.

Only now, when there had been relative peace in Skylands, could she even begin searching for where Scarlet had died.

Knowing Scarlet and her family, it was extremely likely that she would be buried in the family’s graveyard, back at her old hometown. The place which used to be Ninjini’s hometown too. She consulted Hugo and caught up on centuries worth of history. That sleepy little town went through so much while she was away. It got conquered by trolls briefly, then turned into a mining town by Arkeyans looking for resources. Apparently there had been a huge collection of rare metals underneath their feet the entire time. Then after the Arkeyan Empire was overthrown, they town tried to go back to the sleepy village it once was. But some things simply could not be undone.

The town then proceeded to go through years and years of unrest. Filled with unhappy villagers, broken families, poverty, anger. Almost every major event that happened in the immediate area after the Arkeyans just sounded like misery. And though it had started to recover majorly in the past hundred years, things still seemed tense there. Built upon years and years of suffering and hurt.

But at least she found a map to the place. Finally, she could get some closure. She asked around to see who wanted to accompany her on this journey and got three volunteers. Then they were off.

*****

They parked the Splatter Splasher outside of the town, by the river. On the way there, they had all made a list of things they needed to get. So Splat and Star Strike went into town together, while Déjà Vu stayed behind with Ninjini to look after the boat. As well as to keep Ninjini company. The Giants were famous as far as Skylanders went. But that made personal missions tricky, especially when people clamoured to get your autograph or were all asking you to stay the night at their homes. So Ninjini, at least on a journey as personal as this one, had opted to stay away from as many busy crowds as possible.

As usual, Ninjini spent that time looking up at the sky, cloud-watching. Forming shapes from the puffy white things. That one looked like a dragon, and that one looked like a cat…

But that day was not a particularly cloudy one, so she ended up growing bored. She sat up, and turned over to her right. Where the river, the boat and Déjà Vu were. In the boat, she sat cross-legged. Holding a tiny opened locket. 

“Hey,” she began, “whatcha doing?”

Déjà Vu looked up. “Oh, well…” She showed her the locket, as if it was easier to show rather than tell. Within it, was a tiny picture of another familiar face. Ninjini never got many opportunities to work with the Skylander in there, but she knew her. Torch’s picture was fitted neatly into that heart-shaped locket, smiling with confidence and pride.

Ninjini smiled. “Is she important to you?” She asked. Embarrassingly enough, she realised that she honestly had not been talking to any of the three girls much on this mission. She ought to rectify that. 

Déjà Vu nodded. “We’ve been going out.” It’s been almost a month, and they’d spent all that time travelling around Skylands via the route the M.A.P gave them. Some routes were further than others, especially quiet, obscure towns. No doubt, she was beginning to miss her thanks to all that time and distance between them.

She could sympathise.

“We’d talked about this beforehand. Because that town we’re going to is so far away, we knew that it would probably be a long journey there. She… actually made these matching lockets for the two of us, just in case we ever get these big missions away from each other. No matter where we go, we’ll always have a little piece of each other with us.” Déjà Vu closed the locket, and turned to face Ninjini. Though her face was masked, Ninjini could tell that she had on a melancholic smile. It was all in her eyes.

“It’s really not the same as having her right here with you though, isn’t it?” She mused, absentminded.

“It’s not. But sometimes, you do have to make do with the circumstances life throws at you.” Déjà Vu shrugged. 

Ninjini has to ask. “So, why did you volunteer for this mission anyways?” It had been completely voluntary. She clearly missed her lover, and she was well aware of the long journey this sort of mission came with. She really did not need to come along.

Déjà Vu did not say anything. She merely placed her tiny hand onto Ninjini’s big, held it, and smiled up at her.

Before either of them could say anything, Splat and Star Strike returned from town with supplies. So now they needed to head back to the mission at hand. The three smaller girls loaded themselves into the Splatter Splasher, and Ninjini raced after them, too big to fit into the boat with them.

*****

It took a couple more days to head to the town. But once they arrived, Ninjini almost couldn’t recognise it.

Gone we’re the green fields, filled with wildflowers and tall grasses. The trees were no longer filled with birds, and there were significantly fewer trees to boot. There were still people out and about. Elves, trolls, the odd dragon or crocagator. But it was far from bustling with life. Most people in town now walked about tired, gloomy. Years and years of hard times leading up to this point in their lives.

Maybe it was her nostalgia talking, but Ninjini simply couldn’t help but compare critically.

“I used to visit this town loads back in the day,” she told the girls, “and I swore, it was a much more happier, vibrant place than this.”

“To be honest, it kind of reminds me of my old hometown,” said Splat. She grew up in an infamously creatively sterile town, which was not a good sign for the state of things there.

They asked around. “Any old mansions with graveyards in them?” And most responded by shaking their head no.

“I think there were a couple of those ages ago? But that was such a long time in the distant past, I don’t even know whether that’s true.”

“Why don’t you check the town records for that?” Suggested someone.

So off they went, heading to the town hall. Located right in the centre of town. With its marble floor and ceiling so high, even Ninjini could fit into it. The rest of the town may be bleak, but with all the murals on the ceiling, the art on the walls, and the myriad of colourful plants everywhere, the town hall shone like a pearl in a grey ocean. 

The first obstacle was the secretary. All four of them, one at a time, begged him to give them access to the records. After many attempts to charm him, they finally played the Skylander card. And fortunately for them, he was a big fan. The four of them were given free access to the place. Any of them could enter whenever they wanted (as long as town hall was opened, of course), however many times they wanted. 

That evening, they all checked into an inn in town, and for the next week they dedicated themselves to finding the whereabouts of that specific woman and her grave.

The further away in time they went, the more sparse the records. “According to the secretary outside,” said Star Strike, “the trolls and Arkeyans tried to destroy a lot of the older stuff.”

That fact set the mood for the rest of the case-cracking process. It was all gloom and misery for a good chunk of their time spent in that room.

There was a lot of material to go though, but not much on Scarlet and her family after a specific point. Her bloodline ended. But before then, there were loads of things to unpack. And so unpack they did. 

Or at least they tried. They went around in circles. Her family had more than a few scandals tied to their name. Which was such a shame for Ninjini to read. They were such a kind family back in the day too. Offering fruit to children and the elderly, helping those who did not have enough food to feed their families. They used to throw a big party every year during winter to lift people’s spirits.

The family she read about. The one filled with murders and adultery, with greed and bitterness, was not the family she knew.

Admittedly, after a week spent doing nothing but shifting through historical records, they were all beginning to feel a little bananas. So on the seventh day, Ninjini decided that they all deserve a break. The three of them went out together, and Ninjini stayed behind in the inn to talk to some of the locals.

Just like she had dreaded, much of the old cheerful spirit she was familiar with had gone. People there had just been under pressure for too long. It was no longer an innocent town. Broken marriages, sickly children, unemployment. She wished she could help them all. Do something great, change all their lives, maybe by finally gaining the wish-granting powers genies were all supposed to have. 

Ninjini supposed that this was why she became a Skylander in the first place. She had wanted to use her talents to try and make the world a better place. In the past, she always thought that it was other places in Skylands which needed help. That her hometown was a happy haven which other places could aspire towards. It was hard to see that very same town, which she used to hold up as an ideal, become so downtrodden.

When the girls returned, she tried to smile and joke with them, as if she hadn’t been spending the whole day listening to tales of misery. That night, she slept early. Going out to the big spacious field near the inn where she spent every night. She had that nightmare again, and woke up in a cold sweat. When she woke up, she requested that the four of them return to the town hall as soon as possible.

“Oh yeah, about that…” began Star Strike.

“We think we might have finally found where Scarlet was buried!” Said Splat, too excited to keep it within her.

For a moment, Ninjini couldn’t believe her. “Wait, are you serious?” They were nowhere near finding it out the last time they were in the house. How did the three of them manage to solve the mystery in less than twenty-four hours?

Déjà Vu nodded. “We found a little clue about what happened to the house. And it all came from someone refusing to let the house be repaired by ‘common people’.”

Because it was never repaired, the house eventually crumbled. No one cared about that family, so even though it was a big house with tons of history behind it, no one cared enough to help them out with repairing it. So they sold the land, and the bloodline eventually died. That land was in turn used to make an art museum.

Star Strike held up a pamphlet she got from the front desk of town hall. “We got that information from over here,” she said. Of course, cross-referencing. Such an obvious next step in their plan, yet Ninjini never thought to do it. Oops.

After breakfast, they headed over there immediately. It was a small white building in the middle of a big field. Obviously, not much art filled the walls of the place. But tucked far away in the corner, as far from the main building as they could possibly make it, there lay the graveyard.

“At least they bothered to still leave the graveyard up,” said Star Strike. Ninjini nodded. She could thank her lucky stars for that, at least.

“Go on, find your lover,” said Splat. And Ninjini did a double take.

“You knew?” She asked. All three of them froze. Splat chewed her lip, Star Strike placed her hands behind her back and looked away, while Déjà Vu rubbed the back of her next bashfully. “You  _ all _ knew?” 

“Hugo told us,” confessed Déjà Vu. “We figured it was something personal to you, so we didn’t want to tell you that we knew.” 

It… warmed her heart. She looked down at them, and gave them a warm smile. But right now, they were so close to their goal, her mind was a little too busy buzzing to try and find the right words to express her gratitude. “Let’s just try to find her first, okay?” And everyone agreed to that plan. They got to work.

It honestly took a shorter time than they expected. There were so many graves in the yard, they thought it would have taken at least an hour. But within ten minutes, they found it. On a cold stone tablet, her name was carved. ‘Here lies Lady Scarlet. A scholar, a lover, a lonely heart for life’.

She read that, tracing her fingers on her gravestone. And Ninjini felt her heart twitch in pain.

It had been so long, she wasn’t even sure if Scarlet was alive anymore. It was very plausible that she had died the second death. And even if she hadn’t, the Underworld was terribly big. Who knows if she could ever find her.

But the gravestone was a start. And even if she never found her, at least she could always go back to the grave to see her and mourn her. Regret the life they could have had, if only she had not been cursed. If only she had stayed.

**Author's Note:**

> I like writing sad yuri. I don't know why. You would think that as a wlw I would be more into writing happy yuri, but well... I guess it's like that saying. Happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Maybe someday I would like a happy relationship with a girl, but writing unhappy situations is fun because it's easier to make interesting.


End file.
